Conventional evaluation of floor covering or flooring products such as carpeting, carpet tiles and area rugs involves a purchaser viewing samples (such as swatches), actual products, brochures, print outs, or other advertising showing products and patterns of interest and attempting to formulate a mental impression of how the floor covering will ultimately appear in an installed state within the final area of use (home, office, room, etc.).
This process may be further complicated in a large commercial installation such as may be present in office environments or expansive public facilities such as airports and the like wherein the floor covering is in the form of arranged patterned carpet tiles. In such installations, the carpet tiles are placed across the flooring surface in substantially adjacent relation to one another so as to appear as a substantially continuous patterned surface. Such installation techniques provide substantial flexibility in terms of developing a desired overall patterned arrangement across the flooring surface. In particular, the use of discrete tile elements permits a plurality of tiles having the same pattern to be arranged adjacent to one another in a so called “monolithic” installation procedure wherein every tile is arranged in a similar relative orientation. It is likewise possible to install the discrete tiles in an orientation wherein a portion of the tile elements are rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees relative to the adjacent tiles so as to create a slightly different appearance while nonetheless using a single pattern.
It is also possible to offset adjacent rows of tiles to create a brick or ashlar look. Further, it is also possible to incorporate tiles with different surface designs in a single installation such that different designs are present at different locations within the installation. Such multi-patterned installations may utilize either “monolithic” or varying placement orientations in the installation process.
While the use of discrete tile products across a flooring surface provides the user with a number of potentially desirable installation options using either a single surface design pattern or multiple surface design patterns, it may be difficult for the user to visualize the coordinated arrangement of discrete elements or tiles prior to actual installation. While the use of physical samples of the floor covering material is generally useful, it may be difficult to visualize various combinations of different surface designs and/or placement orientations from such samples. Moreover, if multiple designs are contemplated, it may be time consuming and expensive to produce actual product samples for each contemplated design. Further, numerous actual 36 inch×36 inch full size carpet tile samples may be heavy, bulky and cumbersome to transport to or from the customer and difficult for customers to manipulate. Finally, typical floor covering products or samples are not configured for mounting on a common support surface for manipulation and evaluation of different designs and/or orientation combinations.
Still further, pattern carpet or carpet tile having unique designs, patterns, color combinations, textures, and/or the like provides for aesthetically pleasing flooring, but as contrasted to solid color carpet provides a challenge in visualizing how the pattern carpet or carpet tile will look installed in a room, home, office, or the like. For example, Milliken & Company of LaGrange, Georgia produces Comfort Plus® jet dyed pattern carpet tile having aesthetically pleasing unique designs, colors, textures, and the like.
Hence, there is a need for an improved system, tool, and/or method for evaluating potential floor covering pattern arrangements or installations prior to the floor covering products actually being purchased or installed.